God of wine, nature god, born from Zeus' thigh after the untimely death of his mother before his birth, spends his lifecarrying the secrets of wine production. He is accompanied
by satyrs,centaursand wildly dancing
young women. As the god of agriculture andfertility, he is reborn each year, associated with rites designed
to promote fertilityand with mystery religions which based their teachings
onthe problemsof death, purgation,
and re‑birth.

The 5th century
Athenian values were balance, wisdom, justice,even‑mindedness; these values
arerepeated
in literature.Athenian praises the golden mean‑- moderationin all things.

However, Dionysus represents
a different spirit, one of ecstasy, of abandonment to emotion. In myth and literature, Dionysus is represented as an outsider, not a traditional Athenian/Greek
god of the original pantheon, but as an interloper, a new god demanding new fealty.

Most
anthropologists agree that Dionysus had to be a stranger /outsider because the ecstatic irresponsibility and release
that he offeredto women was unique in Greek religion.